It's Hip to Be Square

I saw three excellent movies over the weekend: The Departed, American Psycho, and Harvey.

I saw the first on Saturday, and I can see why it won the Oscar for best screenplay. It believably keeps the identity of each mole secret from the other until it absolutely has to give one of them away. Also, the choice of "Shipping Up to Boston" for the car chase towards the end is great. The song is established in the beginning when DiCaprio does his stint in jail for the trumped-up assault charge, so the audience has it in the back of their minds. It fits the movie's basic gist: it is undeniably Irish, and it is a violent piece of music on a basic level. The violence is accented by the rising tension of the film itself, so when you hear the first strains, just before the mobsters start heading over the Zakim Bridge, your pulse revs.

On Sunday night, I saw American Psycho followed by Harvey. That has to be one of the weirdest double features ever. In the first, you see how Christian Bale was selected for Batman, for his uncanny ability to play a person hiding a secondary persona under a solid veneer of semi-respectability. Also amazing in this movie is the scene in which Bateman (ha-ha, sounds like Batman) monologues about Huey Lewis and the News and "Hip to Be Square" while readying to axe his business competitor. He puts on a raincoat, starts playing the song, and takes an axe to the man's head while Huey is about halfway through the first verse. The scene is beautifully written: it shows Bateman's mask rapidly deteriorating, both in his actions and the way he speaks.

With Harvey, there is another dynamic of insanity for much of the first part of the book. Its much more pleasant, and you are trying to figure out if Harvey is imaginary or not. Though it is later hinted that he is real, the dialogue and actions are meant to lead the reader to initially believe that Elwood P. Dowd is merely a happy and likeable loony, and that there is not a six foot three inch white rabbit standing behind him.